Things continue to cool off here in Japan. One thing I often hear is that Japan definitely has four distinctive seasons. The transition of the last few months was pretty dramatic, and it is only going to get colder.
Work today was a matter of organizing my classes and getting things ready for the end of the semester. Often in this journal I mention that Mr. Hayashi is a very laid back, relaxed guy. Today I got to experience the down-side of that.
While the second year teachers have been working with me to wrap things up smoothly, the first year teachers have been conspicuously silent. Today I asked about the end of the semester, and I get the impression that nobody had really thought much about it. I think they just kind of assumed that I would know how to handle it.
I have a giant spreadsheet to handle the logistics of my classes. Some classes are ahead of others, some skipped lessons, and some are two lessons ahead of everyone else. Every time I miss a day because of a seminar, or a holiday passes, some classes get behind.
The magic trick is to make sure they end with all the same amount of classes, homework, and time enough to study for their final exams. Today was mostly spent trying to organize that. It wasn’t easy, but at least now we have a gameplan. Next time I’ll know how it works, but this time was pretty scary.
At the end of the day I was grading papers, and the broadcast club came in with a tape recorder and microphone, looking for teachers to interview. Luckily I don’t speak enough Japanese to make it work, so they passed me by.
On the way home I stopped by my local grocery to pick up some dinner items, but they were closed. It looks like a remodel, but heck if I could read the sign that was posted. Living in a country where you cannot read makes things like this much more interesting. I’ll check it out tomorrow, and if it’s still closed, I’ll have to get Mr. Hayashi or Mr. Kimura to translate for me.
